Saturday, February 25, 2017

Spring Plans

Counting down the days to spring! It is too wet and muddy to do much gardening now, but the weather is great for planning.

We plan to grow 2,000 pounds of herbs, veggies, and greens to give to Esther's Food Pantry this year, so far we have given them 19 pounds of winter squash and cabbage so only 1,981 pounds to go! How do we plan to grow that much? By planning what and when we grow it. Our goal is to have another crop ready to plant as soon as an earlier crop declines. As our overwintering kale and cabbage is harvested we are planting snap peas and after snap peas we will plant pole beans and cucumbers, then we will cover that plot with plastic covered hoops and grow lettuce, chard, and carrots over the fall and winter.

This is the first year that the garden doesn't have a big project in the year's plan. We just finished hooking up our rainwater harvesting tank and our perennial herb garden was completed last fall. This years plans include building a trellis to shade our classroom/bench area, and acquire a pop-up canopy to shelter volunteers from sun and rain during volunteer and educational events.
This tank will hold 275 gallons of rainwater. It will take about 8 inches of heavy rain to fill it. It isn't big enough to use for summer watering, however we have several garden plots covered with plastic or cloth in the winter and this water will really come in handy. 
Thanks to all of our supporters who help to make the Campbell Community Garden Great!